You're not fooling anyone

Our childless moments are few and far between.  We harbor no resentment over this - most of the activities we enjoyed together before Calvin are things we can enjoy just as well, if not more, with his little boy presence - but the occasional date night is still a coveted thing.  Last night was the first time since Calvin's birth that we went out on a date together after dark.  Sure we've been on other dates as a couple, but those were lunch dates, or dinner dates shared with the 5:00 diners who are out using their AARP meal discounts.  Tonight we went out after both Calvin and the sun were safely tucked in for the night.  Our destination was opening night of the Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D movie, and we found ourselves surrounded by young couples out on early relationship date nights, complete with nervous giggling and awkward hand-holding.  In an attempt to fit in we tried this ourselves, sliding down into the uncomfortable seats and contorting our bodies in an effort to hold hands across the personal space defining arm rest, before finally giving up and admitting that we weren't fooling anybody.  "We look old," Cortney says to Jon, to which he replied "you look like a mom."  Well, there are worse things.  And our attempt at disguise still beat the two young men who walked out of the first showing of the movie and slid behind the potted palm in the hallway to wait for an opportunity to slide back into the theater for a free second showing.  A potted palm?  That's not a disguise - it's comedy.  But it worked for them - they sat directly in front of us in the late movie - a situation that we chalk up to weak theater security because believe us, they weren't fooling anyone either.

Did anyone lose a kid?

We found this one in our house this afternoon:

Driving edamommy up the wall

Animals of all kinds are able to identify their offspring by the unique sound of their call.  For whales this sound is a haunting bellow, for birds a beautiful song, and for dolphins a cheerful chirp.  Other animals are not so lucky - next time you are compiling your sympathy list you might consider including that poor hyena mother, or the mom to a baby howler monkey.  And somewhere along that scale, of course, fall human mothers.  We hear it all:  tears, screaming, laughing, babbling, and, we can't forget, whining.  Who can forget the whining?  At this point in time we are convinced that the whine is the single most identifiable sound in Calvin's vocal range - we can pick it out of a busy room anywhere, and it often sends us heading in the opposite direction if possible.  Unfortunately the whine is also the most frequently heard sound, and it has a long list of uses to which Calvin is forever adding.  Over the past few weeks Calvin has begun to take an interest in "driving" things around the house, such as toy cars, elephants on wheels, and even blocks without wheels - he will drive anything that will push easily, and of course he accompanies this new driving skill with motor noises that sound suspiciously similar to his ear-piercing whine.  We try to remind ourselves that this is creativity at its earliest and best, but that's hard to keep in mind as we sit through lunch watching and listening to Calvin driving his edamame across his highchair tray, wondering if we wouldn't prefer that baby howler monkey after all.

Ewwwww..... you ate what????

A big bug.  Seriously.

 

Giraffe laughing kid...

It was a beautiful day today, and since Moose is feeling much better (really he didn't miss a beat) you know where we were... the zoo.  In fact, we decided it was time that we made the drive to Battle Creek for our first visit this year to Binder Park Zoo and its friendly giraffes.  We can't lie - we weren't nearly as excited about seeing the friendly giraffes as we were about seeing Calvin seeing the friendly giraffes.  Unfortunately the day didn't go as smoothly as planned (do they ever???) but after getting a late start and spending 20 minutes in construction traffic we had previously been unaware of, we were pleased to find the zoo busy but not packed, and the weather warm but not stiffling.  As per our usual routine we headed straight for the tram to Africa.  The trip to Africa made Calvin a little nervous (not upset, just a little uneasy), but the visit with the giraffes was a big hit: he thought they were hilarious.  He was a little unsure of feeding them, those are big tongues, after all, but he was a good sport about it just the same.  And he had a lot more fun on the tram ride back.  Back in the American half of the zoo he got the chance to spend even more time with funny animals in the petting part of the zoo, his favorites being the pigs, the goats coming in a close second.  He also enjoyed petting a Ball Python before he got back to the car and headed home to grill dinner and enjoy watermelon on the front porch.

You can, of course, find a plethora of pictures from today in our June 30 - July 6 photo album. 

And a quick environmental plug  we feel we have to mention - we were pleasantly surprised this evening to see that Kroger is now selling reusable shopping bags.  We bought 4 and will buy more if we have to, but it looks like we'll have to find a new (and more environmentally friendly) way to clean up after the dogs.  The bags are great and we hope you'll check them out, too.